Snapshot: Spock's televangelist-like half-brother hijacks the newly christened Enterprise-A and heads to the planet Sha'Ka'Ree, in an effort to rendezvous with a god-like being. William Shatner takes over the directing reins, following co-star Leonard Nimoy's turn at the com in "The Search for Spock" and "The Voyage Home."

The reasoning behind the ranking: Listen, for the record I positively love William Shatner in "Boston Legal." Pretty fond of his "Star Trek" work, too. I even dig those silly, self-deprecating Priceline commercials he does.

Where I do not love him, however, is in the director's chair. Exhibit A: "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." (Which for many disillusioned movie-goers would have been more accurately titled "Star Trek V: The Final Straw.")

Todd Bryant and Spice Williams as Klaa and Vixis in 'Star Trek V: The Voyage Home.'

Not only is this not a very good "Star Trek" movie, but it is not a very good movie, period. From the very beginning, the tone is disappointingly un-"Trek," with Kirk and company on shore leave in Yosemite. Kirk is climbing El Capitan. McCoy is building a campfire. Spock is flying around on rocket boots. Back in space, Uhura and Scotty are flirting.

All together now: Huh?

Making his feature directorial debut, Shatner tries hard to play things for laughs, but none of it ever ends up being nearly as funny as he apparently thought it was. Rather, it goes from being eye-rollingly corny to nearly embarrassing.

More importantly, the story -- involving a half-brother of Spock and his hijacking of the Enterprise in the search for a god-like being -- never distinguishes itself. The easy criticism of any "Trek" movie is that it plays out like a padded version of the TV show -- but even that might be an overstatment here. The plot is flimy, the ending muddled, the overall experience disappointing.

The film did usher one important change on the "Star Trek" movie series: The series' actors were no longer hired to direct until the "Next Generation" movies some years later. Most logical.